Mark Hugo Nasjleti, who has Down syndrome, 'a professor of fitness'

The Republican photo by John SuchockiMotivational speaker Mark Hugo Nasjleti, center, poses with his parents David and Anne Margot Nasjleti.Mark Hugo Nasjleti is half the man he once was, doing something his parents never thought they would see.
Nasjleti is a motivational speaker. He is 5 feet tall, and he has traveled far to tell audiences how he went from 265 pounds to 133 pounds.
Nasjleti also has Down syndrome.
The 40-year-old Chicopee resident, aided by his parents, David and Anne Margot, is an entrepreneur who created his own business, Go Voice for Choice. Nasjleti’s message is that the developmentally disabled can take charge of their lives through diet and exercise, can strive for self-sufficiency, can even launch their own businesses.
“I’ll inspire you and your friends to create healthier and happier lives for yourselves,” Nasjleti proclaims on his Web site, www.govoiceforchoice.com. And he has gone, among other places, to Boston, Orlando, Fla., Tulsa, Okla., even to Argentina - his father’s homeland - to spread the word.
“I feel good about myself,” said Nasjleti, who began speaking for free and now receives as much as $500, plus expenses, for an appearance.
Nasjleti’s parents were both educators, and he feels that, in a way, he has followed them.
“I feel like a walking, talking professor,” he said.
“That’s true. You are,” said his mother, a former English literature professor at Ithaca College. “You’re a professor of fitness.”
Nasjleti, who was named a member of the BusinessWest 40 Under Forty Class of 2009 in the magazine’s annual compilation of rising stars in the Western Massachusetts business community, halved his weight from 2002 to 2005. He has kept the weight off since and transformed what was a sedentary life into one in which he gets at least three gym workouts a week and plays basketball, soccer and golf with the Special Olympics. He also bowls, bikes, plays tennis and badminton, and goes dancing.
Nasjleti has many people who help him enjoy exercise and sports, including Walter Dixon, a retired licensed practical nurse and now a personal care attendant who works with him. But Nasjleti also radically changed his diet, from one fueled by vending machine snacks and fast food to weekly menu planning where salads, soups and stews are staples.
There is also now a bit of the chef in Nasjleti.
“I eat (stews) which Walter and I create together,” he said.
David and Anne Margot Nasjleti believe their son inspires the parents of other developmentally disabled people to see that their children can have vibrant lives.
“The effectiveness of his presentations comes from the fact he’s a living example of some kind of better reality that we would like for our children with disabilities,” said David Nasjleti, a former linguistics professor at Harvard, Cornell and the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Go Voice for Choice was created after Nasjleti attended a workshop in the fall of 2007 at Springfield Technical Community College Technology Park. Nasjleti decided he wanted to be an entrepreneur during the workshop at the NEBA Business Consulting Center, which is a program of New England Business Associates.
Colleen M. Moynihan, program director at the center, said the nonprofit organization is operated as a business incubator and helps the disabled find jobs. The goal is to get as many to self-sufficiency as possible.
Moynihan said those who want to start a business must create a business plan. Nasjleti, with the help of his parents, created the business plan for Go Voice for Choice. Now Nasjleti is working about 60 hours a month.
Moynihan said Nasjleti is self-directed and very focused, and that he became the first person in the program to complete a business plan. Several others should reach that goal by the end of the month, she said.
Nasjleti can support himself financially through Go Voice for Choice as long as he is assisted by his parents and more is added to the business, Moynihan said. At the moment, work is under way to create a 10-week program to help the developmentally disabled to eat healthy and be active. A cookbook will follow.
David and Anne Margot Nasjleti never saw it coming that their son would be in business as a motivational speaker. In fact, she recalled feeling helpless and overwhelmed when he was born.
“To go from that to where we are now is a wonderful thing, you know?” she said.